New York Subway MetroCard To Be Replaced With NFC

While I am not a New Yorker (I live in the quiet mountains of Colorado), when I do go to Gotham I always pre-load a MetroCard. The card is your ticket, literally, to getting around the various subway lines of the city. It was introduced in the 1990s, replacing the coin token system, and it has been a reasonable way of getting through the system. But New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) also feels the cards are outmoded for today’s world.

MTA has thus turned to NFC, or Near Field Communication. Through a $573 million contract, the MetroCard will be replaced with NFC at turnstiles. This will allow users with NFC enabled credit and debit cards as well as Android Pay, Samsung Pay and Apple Pay users to pay for a fare simply by tapping their phone to the terminal. The new system will be very similar to the system that is used by the London Transit Authority for the Underground in London.

The new system will begin rolling out in late 2018 and by 2023, the MetroCard will be phased out completely.

The move will mean that commuters will no longer have to wait in queues to top up their cards or buy new ones and for visitors to New York, it will make the whole process of subway transportation far less confusing.